SUZUKI GS1000S
TE HAYABUSA OF THE late ‘70s and early ‘80s was the mighty GS1000S. It is still a good bike these days as I found out on a recent test of this mint unrestored, ‘unofficial’ Wes Cooley edition…
I say unofficial Wes Cooley edition because Suzuki never actually marketed or named the bike a ‘Wes Cooley’ edition. It was simply a blue and white S version that happened to closely resemble the colours of the AMA-winning Yoshimura machine. In fact, crazily, the bike was originally released only for the European market, but as soon as US dealers saw it there was demand, as you could imagine. It’s claimed that just over 1000 went to the USA in 1979 and 1980, roughly one for each Suzuki dealer, the rest staying in Europe.
The 1979 GS1000S quickly became the sought-after GS version for the sportier rider, with some updates over the GS1000 and GS1000E including more ground clearance, an 18in rear wheel, 28mm Mikuni’s over the 26mm ones on the other
